Consequences of an Ingenious Mind
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: What if Harry woke up to his underperforming before his third year and decided to take his studies more serious? What if he was more observant and also decided to find out how Hermione got to take all classes offered? What if he took things into his own hands properly for once and didn't mess around so much? The answer: A wizard awakes to his true potential.
1. Knowledge is Power: The Realisation

**Hi, this is a little story I thought up some time ago and have finished ****now****. I will post one chapter over the next weekends each. This is the prologue.**

**The story takes place around the third book and here Harry is a bit smarter and more observant than he is shown in Prisoner of Azkaban. He also uses his Slytherin side more than in the books.**

**Disclaimer for the whole story: Like always I own nothing of the Harry Potter universe, only the idea to this story. **

**Hope you like it.**

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**Knowledge is Power – The Realization**

It was two weeks into his summer holidays and Harry was thinking hard about his last two years at Hogwarts. Many things made him wonder what he had been thinking at the time. Before he had started at Hogwarts he would never have done things without a plan. He had learned the hard way that if he did his relatives would punish him. Calling attention towards yourself got you hurt. So he had learned to prepare. Sure he had got in many sticky situations, but nobody had ever been able to pin anything to him. While his aunt and uncle always blamed him for everything that was slightly unnormal going on, they never knew the things that he really did do.

Harry wasn't a totally underfed child because he had found ways to get a little food on top what they allowed him to have. There was no way that Aunt Petunia would notice if there was a little less food than before with Uncle Vernon and Dudley regularly going to the fridge getting a little snack. On top of that many gardens around the neighbourhood had berry bushes and some even trees that bore fruits like apples or plums. A few missing ones were never noticed by anybody. Especially not from the big ones in Mrs Tayler's garden. She was over eighty years old and the old fruit trees were overflowing with apples, cherries, pears and plums each season. As she was slightly deaf she didn't listen to the neighbourhood gossip and allowed Harry to eat as many fruits as he wanted to if he helped her with the harvest.

Of course Harry had delightedly agreed as it solved his food problems mostly. She also showed him how to boil down the fruits for preservation. Harry soon found out that if he helped around her house a bit, mostly her garden, he got some of the fruits as treats. So Harry had become proficient in getting enough food to get by. Last summer had been a problem because he had been imprisoned in his room, but even if the Dursleys thought of locking him in again, he had asked the twins to teach him lock picking the muggle way. No way would he continue like last summer.

He also had managed to get a few of his school books up here while the Dursleys were showing off their new car to the neighbours. What nobody, not even Ron and Hermione, knew was that Harry had taken a lot of consideration about his electives. Percy's advice of sticking to his strengths and interests had been the best one, as surprising as that was. Harry had gone back and asked the older boy what each class entailed. He was sure that Percy knew. The oldest Weasley currently at Hogwarts had gladly shared his knowledge with Harry. He had after all sat all the OWLs that Hogwarts offered and passed them all. A total number of twelve OWLs was outstanding. So Harry had decided to go with Care of Magical Creatures and Divination for now. He also would buy the book for Ancient Runes and see what Hermione's homework in the subject would be. He couldn't really decide which subject would be more interesting, but taking three classes would probably put a major strain on him and with Quidditch, which he didn't want to give up as he loved playing, and his catching up on the material of the first two years in the practical area once he was back at school, would take up lots of his time.

Harry had thought about how he had wanted to be the best wizard he could be before he started at Hogwarts. He had read all of his schoolbooks, because they had been interesting. But through his friendship with Ron he had become lazy. He wouldn't want to be like Hermione with her definitely insane study habits, but he wanted to do better next year. Knowledge was power. He had to realize that. If he hadn't known what a basilisk was and that its look killed, he would have died trying to save Ginny. Hadn't he known about the Mirror of Erised he wouldn't have been able to save the stone. But he also had realized that he had been stupid in both cases. While the adults hadn't been any help with things, he hadn't been really prepared. While most of it wasn't his fault, he could have done more.

He knew how to make most of a situation for himself. It was how he had grown up. He was sneaky as hell if he wanted to be. Hell, the Dursleys had never noticed that his report cards had been fudged since his third year at primary school. It had been easy. Dudley left his card lying around every time after showing it off to his friends. They always got them early in the morning and then the class would do a little something before the break. Sometimes it was watching a movie, sometimes playing a game. On the day the report cards were handed out there were no normal classes. Harry stayed back, took Dudley's card, went to the copy shop next to the school in his break, copied Dudley's and his report cards and returned it to the classroom before anybody noticed.

After school let out, of course while Dudley was taken by his mother in the car Harry had to walk home, he revisited the shop, with a combined report card. It had his name on top with Dudley's grades. He copied the rebuilt one so that nobody could see that it hadn't been one piece to begin with. As the director didn't sign each report card, they had him sign one blank one and copied that, nobody wondered about it. So he had his aunt sign his report card that wasn't better than Dudley's anymore. As he wasn't a show-off in class, Dudley never said anything about Harry's performance because he didn't know which grades his cousin really got. Harry kept his grades to straight B's while Dudley floundered around solid D's. There was no way he would let his education be sabotaged by them.

The old librarian had told him that knowledge was power in the world to those that knew how to use it. It was the most important advice Harry ever got. He couldn't believe that he had been messing around so much once he entered the wizarding world. Well, it wasn't too late for him and he hadn't failed anything so far. But he knew that he could do better. One thing he wondered about was how he could possibly manage it without overworking himself. There simply wasn't enough time for everything. That was why he didn't take Arithmancy as well. No matter, he would do his best in the classes where he could. And re-reading his schoolbooks would be the start. He didn't have anything to do here anyway, so he could use the time to review all of his books.

* * *

Harry was happy to have found such a good way to learn. Florean Fortescue was a fountain of History knowledge. Since he had run away from Privet Drive he had had all the access to magical knowledge he could have hoped for. Playing the curious youth wasn't hard. And he was a very famous curious youth. During the day he did his homework at the ice cream parlour, in the evenings he talked to Tom's patrons. It was very interesting what you could find out by simply letting old people talk of the past. There were so many things they knew and never had a chance to talk about for one reason or the other. Maybe because it wasn't that special to most magicals, but Harry with having been isolated from the real wizarding world wasn't bored at all.

He was told how the different ways of magical transportation really worked by a Ministry worker from that department. It would help him with his less than graceful floo travelling. A member of the Goblin Liaison Office talked about how you had to deal with goblins to not have them feel insulted. A member of the Magical Games and Sports Department talked about how professional Quidditch teams always scouted at Hogwarts and that Madam Hooch regularly recommended exceptional players to the scouts once they were at least fifth-years. A potions expert helped him get a better grip of the subject and could only shake his head hearing how Snape taught the subject.

Harry was all too happy to remember the information they gave him. It would help him in the long run.

He didn't really care about the Sirius Black situation while he was in Diagon Alley. While the man was reputed to be a dangerous Death Eater it was basically impossible for him to target Harry while he was surrounded by so many adult witches and wizards and had his invisibility cloak on his person. The cloak offered him so many opportunities to find out more about the magical world. He could sneak into places where children were normally not able to go to. He could overhear discussions of adults when they thought they were alone. And most importantly, he could get some less than perfectly safe books in a shop at the beginning of Knockturn Alley without being stopped heading there. He knew magic wasn't all black and white. But how would one know which spells were less propagated if one only looked through Flourish & Blott's? The shop, Obscurus Books, held a lot of, Harry called them Grey Books, knowledge that the common witches and wizards didn't learn because it wasn't completely respectable in the eyes of the Ministry.

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**Okay, that's to start things off, the next chapters will be longer. Till next week.**


	2. A Useful Tool

**Hi,here is the next chapter. Hope you like it. Thanks to all of you that left reviews for the prolog. I honestly didn't expect that many. :)**

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**A Useful Tool**

Harry was lying in wait under his invisibility cloak. He had thought hard about Hermione's impossible timetable this year. He wasn't stupid, even if Hermione sometimes implied that, thank you very much. He just didn't show all of his abilities openly. Ten years at the Dursleys taught you that. He knew that something was fishy after having spent two years at Hogwarts. He couldn't say in the magical world, because outside of Hogwarts he didn't have much of an idea how the wizarding world was. But that was something he would remedy now. He had asked around his yearmates, not only those in Gryffindor. Hermione hadn't missed a single of her classes so far in the entire three weeks that they had been back despite the fact that they clashed with each other. The logical conclusion: she used something to be in two places at the same time. It was now just three weeks into the year and he saw how much stress she put onto herself. He thought that she was being stupid again. Why would she not use whatever she had got at the beginning of the year from McGonagall to have more time for her homework and sleeping? He didn't think that it would be impossible. It would just require a bit of organisation on her part.

But that was Hermione. A rule stickler. Well, he wouldn't make the same mistake. He had found a way to replicate a magical object. He was sure it had to be one, because as smart as Hermione might be, returning in time or splitting yourself in two would be too advanced for her to learn if it was a spell. Additionally she wasn't that magically powerful. Her power level was average. He knew that from comparing their spellwork in classes. While Hermione might be faster in getting a new spell, once he had got a spell down his worked better. Right at the moment he should have been in Divination, but skipping one class that was so useless wasn't a problem, especially as he had already told many of his classmates that he was going to change his elective. Having your death predicted every class wasn't fun and Trelawney was a miserable insect in his opinion. Percy didn't tell him about that part of the class. He had only discussed the material that was covered and that had sounded interesting enough.

But then again Percy lived to follow rules and never talked badly about a person in authority, no matter what a git it was. Hell, he even tried to defend Snape, who couldn't teach to save his life. He might be one of the leading Potions masters of Europe, but he was a lousy teacher. He should have asked more about the teachers, but well, it was a lesson learned and this early into the school year he could easily catch up still. It was why he had decided to change now before he was too far behind in material. With his new study mentality he had learned a lot more than in years before without anybody realising it so far. Alone that he used ear plugs in History of Magic and read whatever book caught his fancy helped so much. But if he really wanted to become great he needed one thing and that was more time where he wasn't disturbed. Which led to why he was lying in ambush for his female best friend. He didn't think that anybody would allow him the same device that Hermione had got without a fight. And he didn't want to blow his cover.

Finally Hermione came out of the classroom for Arithmancy. He watched her closely from underneath his invisibility cloak. He knew he was risking detention for skipping, but if he managed to copy Hermione's device to spend time in two places at once, it was well worth it. She walked towards a deserted part of a corridor and took out something from under her robes after checking that she was alone. Harry quickly used a stunning spell on her. He had done a bit of research on useful spells. She fell to the ground, holding something in her hand. Harry walked over and levitated Hermione into an unused classroom. He inspected the object in her hand. It looked like an hourglass on a golden chain. Interesting. So this thing enabled her to manipulate time. Well, he could use its power too. He pulled out a crystal that he had prepared just for this. It had been soaked in a potion that Harry had brewed, based on a recipe he had found in a book in his trust vault. It was really interesting what you could find out when you had two weeks of access to a magical area.

First he had asked the goblins how much money he really had, because he didn't want to spend too much before he graduated and could get a job of his own. Had it been a shock finding out that he was rich. The vault he knew about was only a trust vault that was filled with hundred galleons more each year on his birthday and had got a starting amount of five hundred galleons directly after his birth. His father had set it up to pay for his school expenses and to spend on whatever he liked. The Potter family vault was many times of that and the vault from where his school tuition was paid. Harry was the last descendent of some of the most powerful wizards and witches in Britain's magical history. The stories Florean Fortescue had been able to tell him. The real surprise though had been the real exchange rate from galleons to pounds. Fifty pounds to a galleon made Harry a really wealthy young man with just what he had available until he came of age.

Second Harry had bought fitting clothes, breaking his promise to Fudge by going shopping in the muggle world with a credit card supplied by Gringotts. After finding out how much money he had he saw no reason to continue wearing Dudley's old clothes if he didn't need to. Now he felt better than ever before. His self-esteem had also risen. Thanks to Florean he had finally understood just why people were so fascinated with his history. He had decided to no longer hide his scar. He wouldn't flaunt his fame or use it if he didn't need to, but he wouldn't hide anymore either.

Third Harry had decided to take his studies more serious. Florean's stories of his parents and grandparents had impressed Harry. But at school he found himself confronted with a problem. You couldn't take all the classes because it wouldn't fit into a normal timetable. So he had been suspicious of Hermione doing it. Now he had found her way and he would copy it without anybody knowing.

The crystal would copy the magical properties of the object it was placed upon. He had bought it just because he liked the idea. His first thought had been to have his own snitch and magical clock. It was such a useful thing to have that he had got a whole box of crystals for anything that caught his fancy. As the crystals were also used for making pendants that were charmed to detect potions and poisons in food they were cheap and easy to get. And the best part of his plan was that there was no spell involved whatsoever. Just a special crystal, he had bought them together with the ingredients for the potion at the apothecary in Diagon Alley, and a bit of precise brewing. Harry had found out that if he concentrated, which was a lot easier without Snape looming over him, he was quite good at Potions. The crystal glowed violet and then shifted into another hourglass. Mission completed. This would enable him to have a lot of fun and get his studies done better. He levitated Hermione back to the corridor and enervated her. She looked a bit disorientated, but quickly turned the hourglass around and vanished from the spot she had been at.

So that was how you used the thing. Whatever the real name was. Harry copied her action and turned it, but two times. He found himself in the same corridor. He cast a tempus charm and found that he had gone back in time for two hours. So one turn of the hourglass was one hour. Oh the possibilities. First he would avoid getting detention for skipping Divination. Everything else he would plan tonight. He knew that you didn't become a great wizard by simply studying from books, otherwise Hermione would have skipped at least two years already, but if he could get some ideas on what to study and practice that would bring him enormous benefits.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall was surprised to find Harry Potter waiting in front of her office after lunch.

"Mr Potter, that's a surprise." She commented.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall. Do you have a moment for me?" He asked.

"Sure, come inside." She said.

Harry nodded and followed her inside.

"Please sit down. Would you like a biscuit?" She asked.

"Thank you, Professor." He said and took one of the chocolate cookies on a plate.

"Now what did you want to talk about, Mr Potter?" She asked.

"I would like to change my elective from Divination to Ancient Runes. I know that the Gryffindor Hufflepuff class isn't at the same time as Divination, but the Ravenclaw Slytherin class is. I wouldn't mind joining them if it gets me out of Divination. I am sick of getting my death predicted each class by Professor Trelawney." Harry stated. "And as we only had three weeks of instructions I am sure that I can catch up with the others. I already have the book as I wasn't sure which class I really wanted to do, but my original plan to try both classes went out of the window when I saw the timetables." Harry explained.

"That's possible, Mr Potter. I will inform Professor Babbling that you will join her class from next Monday on. I will ask her to give you a list of things that her class covered so far. But I expect that you make good on your promise to catch up with the others. I don't want to regret allowing you this, even if I can fully understand your feelings for quitting Divination." She said sternly.

"Thank you, Professor, I won't disappoint you." Harry said smiling.

* * *

While Ron didn't like that Harry had quit Divination there was little he could do about it. Harry had been contacted by Professor Babbling that evening and had been handed a list with what the class had covered so far. It was manageable. So in the evening Harry learned the things on the list next to doing his homework. Ron didn't notice, but it wasn't the only thing he did. Harry normally excused himself for a few minutes a time to use the time-turner. Thanks to his invisibility cloak he managed without appearing in places where he hadn't been before. He had made a schedule what he would do when. Harry had a lot of questions about the wizarding world and so far he hadn't found the time to look the answers up in the library or do experiments to figure things out because Ron was always nagging him about lazing around or Hermione nagged him about studying more.

Now he could use the extra time he got. He sat in the Arithmancy classes under his invisibility cloak; nobody noticed anything. After the first test sitting hidden in the class he had decided to keep going there as the material learned could be really useful in the future. And he had the time so why not? He had also visited the Muggle Studies class once to see what it was like and had decided that he could do any tests there in his sleep. It was funny to see how wizards had problems understanding even the simplest muggle concepts. Hermione was stupid trying to take the class when it was clearly useless for her. He would simply ask if he could sit the OWL based on the fact that he was muggle raised. He had looked up which exams were the most important ones, namely the OWLs and NEWTs at the end of fifth or seventh year respectively. He didn't need to excel before the OWLs, a good above average grade in all of his classes would do. He could have one or two where he stood out, but the rest he could just blend in with the masses of good, but not outstanding students.

Thus Harry Potter started his journey to becoming one of the most powerful wizards of all times completely unnoticed by his teachers.

* * *

The first time Harry used the time-turner, he had by now looked up what the device could be, for something besides his studies was when the first Hogsmeade weekend came around. He couldn't go officially thanks to the Dursleys not signing his permission slip. But that didn't mean there weren't other ways to go. After all, nobody would look out for Harry Potter when he was supposedly in the castle. The one problem were the dementors, but he found a way around them. While they weren't tricked by invisibility cloaks, there was nothing that stopped him using polyjuice potion. The potion needed a month brewing, but it was manageable. One hair stolen from a fourth year student his height and he was set to go. He didn't need to use borrowed clothes to impersonate the other student and he had brewed enough of the potion for a while. He kept a flask with the potion on his person and drank a gulp every hour to keep the transformation up.

They should have thought of that last year when they had looked for the heir of Slytherin in the Slytherin common room. Well, at least the potion he had to drink now, even if it didn't taste much better than before, wasn't as revolting as the Goyle mix he had drunk last year. He had used an unused classroom in a deserted part of the castle. Really, it was stupid that they had used Myrtle's bathroom. There were parts of Hogwarts where nobody came to, except perhaps one of the house elves, but they wouldn't mess with a potion. A simple notice-me-not charm on the room and nobody would find out. The charms he had found while being in time repeat were great. And without Hermione bossing him around it was even fun to read.

He went to all the places in Hogsmeade and bought some things he liked. He didn't have to hide and risk detection; he could simply blend in with the masses. He took a carriage back to the castle, then he used the time-turner to go back to the time when the students had left for the village and started wandering around the castle. He had an unpleasant encounter with Mr Filch and a pleasant one with Professor Lupin who invited him for tea. He also found out why the Professor had prevented that he faced the boggart. Having it explained like that it made sense. But still, he would have liked to have it explained earlier. He had been hurt thinking that his professor didn't think that he could take on a boggart. He also talked about his problems with the dementors and got some answers why they affected him so much.

Thanks to his decision to do better in class he asked about the weaknesses of dementors and how Professor Lupin had driven the one on the train away. He was about to ask if the Professor could teach him the charm, but they were interrupted by Snape who delivered a goblet full of steaming potion. Harry asked about the potion, but the answer was very vague. Well, time for a bit of research.

* * *

Harry pondered about the reason that Sirius Black could have had to attack the Fat Lady on Hallowe'en of all days when all students and ghosts were in the Great Hall for the feast. He was lying in his sleeping bag, but sleep eluded him. He simply didn't understand why Black would choose this day. If he watched the school which he would need to to get inside unnoticed, he would have noticed the Hallowe'en decorations all over the school. Hell, the smell of baking pumpkin pies was a dead give away and they had drafted through the school the whole day. Black had been a student here when he was a teenager, so he had to know that bit of information. The idea that he simply lost sense of the date wasn't making sense.

It looked more like Black wanting something that was inside Gryffindor Tower which he could get easiest when no students were in there. The question was what exactly was that? It seemed improbable now that he was really after Harry. Had he wanted him his best bet would have been attacking him during the day when all other students were out in Hogsmeade. If Black could get into the school this easily he would have managed to track Harry down during the day. He would only have had to watch the gates from a distance and could have seen that Harry had bid his friends goodbye when they left for the village.

Another good chance would have been when the students left for their common rooms. There were lots of places where you could hide on the way to Gryffindor Tower and shoot a spell at somebody unnoticed. In the chaos of a successful attack on Harry Black would have been able to get away again. So why not use one of those methods when he had been able to reach the portrait of the Fat Lady? That would demand more research. Perhaps his best bet was learning all he could about the man that was Sirius Black. There had to be trial transcripts at the Ministry and those were accesible for the public. Next to that he could ask around with the teachers if they could tell him more about what kind of person Black was and if he had any habits that could be used against him.

Hm, probably Professors McGonagall and Lupin would know most about him, having been his head of house at school and his classmate.

* * *

The first Quidditch match of the season was overshadowed by a thunderstorm. Harry didn't like that the Slytherins had cheated their way out of playing and he had no problem announcing that loudly around the school. He called Malfoy a wimp for not being able to get over a scratch from two months ago that had long since been healed by Madam Pomfrey. Harry and the twins had a lot of fun pondering if Malfoy was really cut out to be on a Quidditch team if he couldn't even take a little bit of pain. What if he was hit by a bludger? Would he run to Professor Snape again and complain that he had an ouchie? It caused massive laughter among the other three houses. The Slytherins of course didn't like it at all, but there was nothing they could do. Harry decided that their unsportsmanlike behaviour called for a bit of revenge and he set up some really embarrassing pranks for Malfoy in particular and the Slytherins in general. The git deserved that and more for the mess he had caused to Hagrid and Buckbeak.

So before he had to head out for the match he set up a string of pranks around the entrance to the Slytherin common room. He even overheard a second-year use the password. That would come in handy to prank the Slytherins within their own common room. Right now he only threw some time-delayed potion-filled pebbles into the room. They wouldn't be noticed, but once they had been in there for five hours they would unleash a gas that caused hallucinations. On the door he put a spell that would change the colour of their robes to some neon colours of all shades. Another spell on the walls of the corridor would make them feel the urge to constantly use the loo without being able to succeed there.

He knew it was a bit mean, but most of them deserved it for how they behaved. He wondered how the gits would like being on the other side of being embarrassed. Malfoy got specialized pranks. Harry had mixed a potion that would have Malfoy confess his undying love for Snape. The potion had a time delay of five hours after being taken, so if he put it into Malfoy's drink during breakfast after the match it would be set off. Additionally Malfoy's robes would fall off at the seams when he stood up from his seat after dinner. After all, at that time everybody would be there to see it happen.

For the match Harry had a bad feeling. He thought that something bad would happen. So he mentally went over the possibilities of things that could go wrong. His ideas went from being blown away in the storm and not finding the snitch for hours to being blown into a dementor. He shivered. What if the dementors really appeared? He decided an emergency supply of chocolate was in order. He wouldn't be able to master the patronus charm till the match anyway, so lessening the effects they had on him was his best bet. After all, passing out while you were on your broom was not only embarrassing but also dangerous.

* * *

Harry decided that he hated being right. The worst case scenario had happened and had even been massively upped. He really wanted to know why Fate hated him. All the dementors had come to the match. He had put a chocolate ball into his mouth and more by reflex caught the snitch that passed his position. But the monsters were chasing him now. He felt their effects, he put chocolate ball after chocolate ball into his mouth, trying to get back to the ground, but it was no use. They caught up with him and sucked out his happy memories. He heard the woman's, his mother's, screams again and then fell down, knocked out by the overwhelming effects of the beasts.

* * *

While Gryffindor had won the match, much to the anger of Slytherin, Harry was like a man possessed from then on. He would learn the damned patronus charm that Professor Lupin had mentioned even if it was the last thing he did. The charm being very advanced be damned. He wouldn't be forced to relive his mother's death over and over again. He used the time-turner whenever he could to look up the charm and practicing it. He hit a road block one day. He had managed to produce white mist so far, but he couldn't get it stronger. The real patronus that he had read about would take a corporeal form, something he considered protective. He decided to ask his Defence teacher about it. After all, he had come a long way already in the two weeks that he had used to practice. He could show off some results already.

Professor Lupin had offered his condolences for his lost broom. It was really bad luck that it had been blown into the Whomping Willow by the storm. While Harry had been caught by a spell from Dumbledore, his broom had been destroyed. Well, he would have to get himself a new one, even if he had liked his old one a lot. They had been through a lot and no matter what Harry cherished each present that he ever got, well except for the non-presents from the Dursleys. He would think which one to get after Christmas. Until then there was no need to hurry. It would start snowing really soon and training wouldn't take place then. Additionally it would be too dark to train in the evenings.

* * *

When Harry reached the office of his favourite teacher, he was surprised to find the door already open. He went inside and saw Professor Lupin handing an older student some pieces of parchment. Perhaps an essay considering that it was a Ravenclaw.

"Ah, hello Harry. What can I do for you?" He asked after the other student left.

"Hello, Professor Lupin. I wondered if you could give me some pointers on a spell I have been trying to learn in my free time. I read up on the theory behind it, but I seem to be stuck for now." Harry said.

"Sure. Please show me how far you have come so far." Professor Lupin said kindly.

Harry nodded and called the happy memory he used to the forefront of his mind.

"Expecto Patronum." Harry cried out and a white mist appeared again. It flickered for a while and then went out. "I don't know how to get it further, Professor. I remembered that you told me that this spell was the only way to drive a dementor away and after the last match I don't want to ever have to fear them knocking me out again." Harry explained.

He saw that his teacher was baffled. He clearly hadn't expected that Harry would have got this far on his own.

"That was very impressive, Harry. I wouldn't have thought that a thirteen year old wizard would be able to get this far on his own." Professor Lupin praised Harry. "Well, a reason why you can't proceed farther could be that your memory isn't strong enough. Which one are you using?"

"Well, the time I found out that I was a wizard and would leave the Dursleys for most of the year." Harry answered. "I first used my first ride on a broom, but that didn't get me a result."

"Hm." Professor Lupin said, getting the not spoken message that Harry didn't like his relatives at all. "Perhaps you need an even stronger one. The best patronus is always created if you use your strongest and happiest memory. Something that completely fills you with happiness."

Harry thought about it. What memory would give him those feelings? He couldn't really think of anything. But perhaps it didn't need to be a memory. Perhaps he could simply think of the feeling he needed. What made him happy? Normally he would have said his friends, but recently both his best friends were a bit annoying and he couldn't simply conjure the happiness he needed. Then he came up with a thought. It was a dream that he had had for as long as he could think; the feeling of belonging to a real family; being loved. A soft smile was on his face.

"Expecto Patronum." He called out again and this time the mist was a lot stronger and Harry thought there was some kind of shadow figure inside of it.

The patronus faded out of existence after a while and Harry felt drained.

"Fantastic, Harry. You are really close to getting it." Professor Lupin praised him. "What memory did you use, if I may ask?"

"None. I don't have a memory that would be strong enough for this." Harry admitted. "I simply thought what would make me the happiest if I had it. A real family." He spoke quietly at the end.

To his surprise Professor Lupin seemed to have tears in the corner of his eyes.

"Oh, Harry. I never knew that you were that unhappy at your Aunt's house." He said morosely. "I believed Professor Dumbledore when he said it would be for the best if you grew up there. That you would be safe there and could have a normal childhood. I should have made sure. I'm so sorry."

"What do you mean, Professor?" Harry asked. "Why would you have asked?"

"I was one of your father's best friends at school, Harry. We were a group of four. We were inseparable. We called ourselves the Marauders and had nicknames for each other. Your father's was Prongs, mine was Moony. The other two were Wormtail and Padfoot. Wormtail was Peter Pettigrew and Padfoot Sirius Black." He spat out the last name.

"What? My father was friends with Black? Why is he after me then?" Harry asked surprised.

Professor McGonagall hadn't mentioned that when he had asked her about information on Black to be better prepared to defend himself if he should come across him.

"So you know. It's better that way I think. Well, I guess nobody told you this, but shortly after your parents had you they went into hiding to protect you. Professor Dumbledore had got information that Voldemort would target your family. You were constantly found and so we suspected that we had a spy in our ranks. That means a group that fought against Voldemort under the leadership of Professor Dumbledore. In the end Professor Dumbledore suggested using an ancient charm called the fidelius charm. It hides a secret in the very soul of a person. As long as the person doesn't talk about the secret it can't be found out. That person is called the secret keeper and Sirius Black was your parents' secret keeper. He was the only one that could have given your location away to Voldemort. That's how he could find you that Halloween." Professor Lupin said sadly.

"One of their friends betrayed them?" Harry said choking.

This was a lot to take in. Having one of Voldemort's top followers intending to kill him was one thing, it was something he could understand on some level. Revenge was a strong motivation, but that person being the one responsible for his parents' deaths? That was too much. Especially if he had been one of his father's best friends. Tears flowed out of his eyes and he couldn't stop them.

"Why? Why did he do that?" Harry sobbed, suddenly feeling arms embracing him.

"I don't know, Harry. I asked myself that question over and over again. I never suspected that Sirius could betray James. They were like brothers. More than best friends. But Sirius not only delivered James and Lily to Voldemort, he also killed Peter when he cornered Sirius. He blew up a whole street with one curse and killed Peter and thirteen muggles at once. That's why he was sent to Azkaban." Lupin explained, rubbing Harry's back, trying to calm the grieving boy down.

* * *

After that conversation Harry started to work even more. He looked up spells that would be useful to defend himself against Sirius Black, Voldemort and any other Death Eater that could cross his way. Professor Lupin had told him even more about the war and Harry started to really understand why people behaved like they did. Hagrid's descriptions hadn't covered anywhere as much as Professor Lupin's did, because he could tell him exactly how it felt fighting against the Death Eaters, even if Mr Fortescue's had already done a lot to improve Harry's confidence concerning his fame. He used the time-turner to its fullest effect. He did triple the work for his classes, he worked out physically two hours each day, he improved his abilities in brewing massively and read everything that he thought could come in useful. Of course he did that using the invisibility cloak. Once he noticed that he was stressing out, he added more time for sleeping and eating as well. Not to mention an additional day where he just relaxed to not go spare. He didn't know why Hermione didn't do that. There was no one who could control what she did with her time-turner after all. And no Professor who found out that she used it to get her homework done without stressing out or getting enough sleep would fault her. Harry was on double shifts. He had a second bed in an unused classroom, more like a mattress with a pillow and a blanket, but it was enough to get him the sleep he needed.

* * *

The months flew by with how busy Harry was. Soon it was time for the students to return home for Christmas. Harry had decided that he would relax during the holidays and only do his set homework. He had noticed that he had nearly run himself into the ground. But it had paid off. He was no longer a scrawny kid, his working out had helped him develop some muscle. Finding the kitchen and getting to know the nice house elves was an important factor in it as they supplied him with the additional food he needed while doing more hours each day. He had also finished the patronus charm. Now after Christmas Professor Lupin would let him face a boggart which would turn into a dementor to test him against an opponent. If he couldn't perform the charm under pressure, he would need to work on it more.

His patronus was a stag. Professor Lupin had mumbled Prongs absentmindedly. Had his father been a stag animagus? Harry hadn't asked his teacher yet. He was curious though.

* * *

Harry enjoyed simply sitting in the common room, taking walks outside in the snow or visiting Hedwig. His new studies had also taught him a drying charm for his clothes and a general warming charm for them. It helped a lot not freezing in the cold winter weather. He, Ron and Hermione visited Hagrid and asked about Buckbeak. He told them about the hearing next year and how the committee for the disposal of dangerous creatures would be hard to convince. Harry didn't know what to think about this. It wasn't right to have Buckbeak convicted for Malfoy's idiocy. But what could he do? It wasn't as if he had a possibility to show others his memory. Or was there one? That could be possible; after all, he had seen how Tom Riddle had set up Hagrid and Aragog.

He would have to find out. If he could give Hagrid a copy or something of his memories then it would be a lot harder for the committee to simply execute Buckbeak.

Harry noticed that after Hermione had finished her homework for the holidays she relaxed a lot more. She really should use more time to rest. After all, she had all the time she needed. Who cared if she added a few hours for homework or sleeping? But of course he couldn't say anything. She would tell a teacher that he knew or worse, she could suspect that he had a time-turner too and rat him out. She still was too authority loving. He had thought that she had got better after first year, but in second year there had been a bit of a relapse into her belief that books were gospel. And this year was the worst so far.

No, Harry had no delusions that if he slipped up she would force him to hand his time-turner over to Professor McGonagall. So he kept silent and didn't tell her to drop a subject or two or add more time to her days.

* * *

Why did Hermione have to be so authority loving? Why didn't she even ask him? Did she think he wouldn't listen to her concerns? How did she dare simply go telling Professor McGonagall that he had got a firebolt behind his back? He knew that she meant well, but that was really low. He didn't care that much about the broom being checked for hexes and curses that could be a danger to him. But he did care that she had betrayed his trust. If she had simply asked him to let the teachers check the broom before he used it he would have agreed. But this really hurt him.

Now Ron and Hermione were at each other's throats all the time. Ron was upset that a new firebolt would be stripped down. For a Quidditch maniac like him that was a deathly sin. On top of that Crookshanks, Hermione's new cat always tried to eat Scabbers. While Harry loved playing Quidditch, he wouldn't go as far as Ron, but for going after his back Harry would ignore Hermione for the time being. Perhaps then she realized how it felt.

* * *

Hagrid talked to Harry how the school year was going when Harry brought him some notes on possible defences for Buckbeak's trial. It was the end of January and Harry still mostly ignored Hermione.

"It's going well, Hagrid. I have good grades in all my classes. Especially DADA is great this year. Professor Lupin is a great teacher." Harry said smiling.

"Good to hear. There is something I wanted to talk to you about. What is the matter between you and Hermione?" Hagrid asked seriously. "I didn't think you would abandon a friend over a broom."

"It's not the broom, Hagrid, not for me at least. I know Ron is a bit stupid about that. It's that Hermione broke my trust." Harry said, surprising Hagrid.

"She broke your trust?" Hagrid asked surprised and got a nod from Harry.

"Ron and Hermione are the two people I trusted most in my life. But why couldn't Hermione trust me to listen to her concerns about the broom possibly having been sent by Sirius Black? Did she think that I would be too blind to not care about my safety? Had she told me what she feared and asked me to tell Professor McGonagall myself, I wouldn't ignore her. I am just returning the favour that she ignored my feelings about the matter. I don't insult her or go out of my way to hurt her, but damn, she can't simply do something like that behind my back and expect me to simply take it. It's my life, not hers. She can't simply decide what is best for me and it's time she realizes it before something more drastic happens." Harry explained.

"Well, that's hard to argue with. But I think that you should talk to her and tell her why you are doing it. She is really depressed how you treat her. She only wanted to protect you and overdid it. I can understand your reasoning. I wouldn't like feeling like that either, but she still is your friend and she is too stubborn to admit that she was wrong and that she bit off more than she can chew this year. She is researching material for Buckbeak's trial too and doing all of her classes. She is running herself into the ground with her stupid pride, trying to prove that she can do everything." Hagrid said.

"I won't promise anything, but I can try." Harry said. "If she admits that she has been wrong I will forgive her, but I want a proper apology from her for going behind my back."

Hagrid knew that it was the best he could get right now from the boy.

* * *

Harry was very happy about his time-turner when he had to balance Quidditch practice with his normal classes, his additional studies to prepare for when Sirius Black would come for him and a little independent Potions study to see if he could learn how to brew wolfsbane potion for Professor Lupin. He had found out by now what that potion that Snape had delivered was and didn't hate his Defence Professor in the slightest. He was sure that as long as he took his potion he wasn't in any way dangerous. Harry was also fascinated by the idea of becoming an animagus. If his dad had been one, he wanted to become one too. So when Professor McGonagall had ended her class one day he had stayed behind and asked her how one would go about becoming an animagus and how the registering at the Ministry would work. Because, as much as being an unregistered one was exciting, he didn't want the idiots that had Hagrid sent to Azkaban without any proof of him doing anything wrong being after him if it needn't be.

She had informed him that it was a very difficult part of Transfiguration and that it would demand a lot of hard work on his part. The easy part was identifying your inner animal with a potion that would put you into a meditative trance. You would then get an idea of your animal and could work towards becoming it. She told him that it was an offer that NEWT Transfiguration students got and the best managed to finish the transformation by the time they graduated. But there had only been one student managing it before graduating and one two years after. There was a reason that there were only seven animagi this century. Harry told her that he would definitely do his best to get the chance and she had smiled at his enthusiasm. As he wouldn't get far without help becoming an animagus on his own, he postponed that until sixth year. He had more than enough other things that he could spend his time with.

* * *

Harry, as he had promised Hagrid, talked to Hermione and told her just why he was put out with her. He had kept her at arm's length for two weeks now and decided it was enough. He told her that he was really disappointed with how she thought that she could simply go behind his back. It had shocked Hermione, but after two days she had apologized to Harry properly and for him that was enough of the matter. Ron was still difficult, especially as Crookshanks seemed to have finally caught Scabbers and eaten the rat. While Harry was sympathetic for Ron's loss, he didn't blame Hermione for her cat much. Crookshanks could be a really nice cat, at least to him. He didn't seem to like Ron much. And Ron had always complained about Scabbers being useless. Still, it was obvious that it hurt Hermione how Ron constantly loudly rubbed in how he thought that she was at fault for Crookshanks eating Scabbers.

Harry decided to stay neutral and not get too involved into their arguments. He consoled both and just hoped that they would soon stop this nonsense. He had more important things to do than watching his two best friends bicker with each other. He normally went to sit and talk with Neville when Ron and Hermione had a row. The shy boy was pretty good company once you got through his shell. As Harry had no intention to become involved in the rows he settled for sitting between the two in classes where there were tables for three or more students in a row and sit with Neville in the others to not have to choose between them. He simply wouldn't do that.

A few days before the match against Ravenclaw Harry got his firebolt back and he was incredibly happy about it. Not nearly as ecstatic as Wood was though. His captain had a mad gleam in his eyes. The Gryffindor Quidditch practice before the match was incredibly good. All moves they tried seemed to work perfectly and for the first time ever Wood had nothing to complain about after practice, he only said that they would flatten Ravenclaw. Though he asked if Harry had solved his dementor problem.

"Don't worry Oliver. I can always produce a corporeal patronus now without dementors being present and most of the time with a boggart dementor. I won't fall of my broom again if they come to the match." Harry assured the Quidditch maniac.

"Good, then nothing will stop us from winning the match." Wood said happily.

* * *

**And done. Till next time.**


	3. Truth

**Hi, here is the last chapter for this part. Sequel is definitely possible, but still in work. Thanks for all your reviews and putting this story in your favourites lists. Happy reading.**

* * *

**Truth**

Harry looked over his latest notes from Ancient Runes. He was really glad that he had found into the class this easily after the switch. The subject was a lot more useful than Divination could ever be. Even if he was with the Ravenclaws and Slytherins, it had been good so far. The Ravenclaws had only given him a few curious looks why he was with them and not his house, but otherwise they easily accepted him. The reaction of the Slytherins was far more entertaining. To his joy Malfoy and his ilk weren't in this class, so he got his first really good impression of true Slytherins. There were five of them in this class. Daphne Greengrass, a blond beauty that was called Slytherin's Ice Princess, the Ice Queen was currently Roselia Humason from sixth year, Tracy Davis, Daphne's closest friend and follower, quite pretty as well in Harry's opinion and slightly more approachable and Millicent Bullstrode, whom Harry remembered from her roughhousing Hermione at the duelling club last year. From the male Slytherins there was the arrogant half-Italian Blaize Zabini and then Theodore Nott.

Contrary to Draco and his goons they didn't choose the confrontational way to find out more about Harry, but used more subtle ways. Listening in on conversations between Harry and Terry Boot for example as Terry asked why Harry had changed his elective. Then they let Tracy make first contact and get a few more innocent questions in. It was quite funny in Harry's opinion. They liked their cloak and dagger games so much that they seemingly didn't really know how to get straight answers. He had a lot of fun leading them around by their nose by giving answers that could have multiple meanings. Overall Harry got a few more acquaintances among the Ravenclaws and a few Slytherins that wouldn't stupidly believe the rubbish that Malfoy let lose.

It was just a shame that he didn't find many opportunities to get a few more contacts with the Hufflepuffs as well, but the Gryffindors only had Herbology with them and it really wasn't Harry's favourite subject. Perhaps because Aunt Petunia had always forced him to work in her garden. Not to mention that he didn't have the official time to hang out with some of them in his free time. At least he had got a few more closer ties with his fellow Gryffindors. The Quidditch team was closer than ever after the first two victories and Oliver's only concern was that Harry didn't do anything stupid before the last match against Hufflepuff that would land him in the hospital wing again. Harry had no intention of doing that. He hated the place.

Not to mention that being at the hospital would mess his schedule up massively. There was so much he wanted to find out. For example why Slytherin named his special chamber the Chamber of Secrets. Except for the hidden entrance there seemed to be nothing special about it so far. But there had to be something that you could find with cunning and determination. Right now his training to be able to defend himself properly had priority and he couldn't repeat more than one day. The time turner simply couldn't do that. But exploring the Chamber of Secrets and harvesting the basilisk for potion ingredients was something he really wanted to do before the year ended. He expected that a snake of that size would bring him millions of galleons and he wasn't somebody that wasted gold easily. Not when he knew poverty well. And many things became possible if you had the gold to pay for them. Not to mention that nobody would need to know about his source of gold. Opening another vault in his name was easy after all. The goblins certainly didn't care as long as he could pay the annual fee for his vaults.

* * *

Harry felt his hand close around the snitch being far ahead of Cedric Diggory. He felt a wide smile spread over his face. Yes, they had finally done it. They had won the Quidditch Cup. He held the golden ball high over his head in a victory pose which let the Gryffindor section of the stands cheer loudly. He saw his teammates come closer and he decided that landing might be a good idea. Oliver looked as if he was capable of hugging him in the air and making him fall from his broom. One time a year was enough, thanks a lot.

He managed to land before being tackled to the ground by Fred and George who ruffled his hair and shouted how they had done it. The best part was when the chaser girls indiscriminately kissed all their male teammates full on the lips. Harry was sure he wasn't the only one with a goofy smile on his face after that. He really couldn't think of anything being much better than getting kissed by three beautiful girls. This would so make a fantastic memory for his patronus. And for tonight there would be no repeating time. Tonight was party time! The nights after that he would go down into the Chamber and take care of getting the valuable parts of the basilisk.

* * *

Harry stood in the Shrieking Shack glaring at Sirius Black.

"Why? I want to know the reason why you did it." He demanded, pointing his wand at the escapee.

They had followed the black dog down into the passage under the Whomping Willow when it had pulled Ron who had just found Scabbers in Hagrid's hut when they had been there to visit him because it was the day for Buckbeak's appeal and probably execution. Harry had made Malfoy's life hell for bringing the situation about. Having an ironclad alibi was so much fun. The blond never saw it coming. And while Snape stubbornly stated that Harry had something to do with it, there was no proof as Harry had always been somewhere else with witnesses.

Black looked surprised at the demand.

"Yes, they wouldn't have told you the truth. They would have hidden it from you." Black rasped out.

"Which truth? That you betrayed my parent by giving up their location to Voldemort?" Harry asked angrily.

"No, that I didn't even get a trial, neither a fair nor unfair one. Not even a show trial for Voldemort's supposed second in command." Black laughed insanely.

"Interesting. Shows how corrupt they are. But I am still waiting for the truth. You should know that I am completely proficient in blasting hexes, cutting curses and bone-breaking curses. You wouldn't think what you can find in the DADA section." Harry snapped.

"Really? That's impressive for a thirteen year old wizard. Well, I didn't come here to kill you, Harry. I came for somebody else." Black said.

"That somebody wouldn't by any chance be Peter Pettigrew?" Harry asked shocking the others.

"How did you figure that out?" Black asked clearly shocked and impressed.

"The Marauder's Map. It showed Pettigrew on it one night. He must have realized that I had it, because he disappeared soon after. I didn't make the connection until you dragged Ron down into the tunnel. I wanted to know where you took him, so I had a look on it and to my surprise there was another dot labelled Peter Pettigrew. Now talk finally!" Harry exclaimed impatiently.

"Peter is a rat animagus. He was the secret keeper. We switched, thinking it was a genius plot to deceive Voldemort. I convinced James and Lily that the deception would add another layer of protection around them. And it would have if he hadn't been a Death Eater. When I saw your destroyed house I realized what Peter had done, what I had done. I only wanted revenge that moment because Hagrid didn't let me take you, Harry, even if I was your godfather. I lost it then and there. I tracked Peter down, but he hit me with an overpowered cheering charm and blasted the street apart with a second, hidden wand, killing the muggles in the process. He cut off his own finger, transformed and escaped through the sewers which he had blasted open." Black said.

"Are you willing to testify that under veritaserum?" Harry asked, shocking Ron and Hermione.

"At once. I never got to tell my side of the story; they just carted me off to Azkaban." Black stated without hesitating.

"Good, I believe you for now. Let's go to the castle, hand over Pettigrew to the DMLE and get your name cleared." Harry said.

"You don't believe that lot of tosh, do you Harry?" Ron asked. "How could Scabbers be Pettigrew?"

"Easy. The rat is much too old to be a normal garden rat. I researched it after the assistant at the Magical Menagerie said that rats normally live three years at most. Scabbers is well over six years old as far as I could determine. Probably longer, but I don't know when he went to your family, Ron. First I thought he just was too lazy to show his magical powers, but later I was more suspicious. And it's easy to prove. Just hold him out, Ron. I will force him back into his human form." Harry said.

"But that is a fifth-year spell, Harry." Hermione spoke up.

"And? I learned a lot this year. Ever since I found out that Sirius Black was after me, I looked up all I could think of that could help me stay alive. My homework quality suffered a bit for it, but it was well worth it. And I knew that there was a possibility of my father and his friends having been animagi after Professor Lupin called my patronus Prongs and he had told me before that it was my Dad's nickname." Harry said.

Ron looked flabbergasted.

"When did you do that?" He asked.

"Mostly early in the mornings after my morning runs. Nobody was in the library then and I practiced when you and Hermione had one of your rows. Which were numerous this year." Harry added an afterthought. No way would he talk about having a time-turner.

They were interrupted by Professor Lupin storming into the shack. So Harry's makeshift paper-plane memo had reached him.

"Hello, Professor, you are right on time to see the traitor getting unmasked." Harry said grinning and fired the spell at Scabbers who was trying to wiggle away from Ron.

Scabbers turned into Peter Pettigrew.

"Stupefy, incarcerous, petrificus totalus." Harry called out in quick succession and had Peter effectively neutralized.

"Wow, Harry. That was incredible work. I didn't know you were that fast." Lupin praised him.

"Thank you, Professor." Harry said grinning, then he remembered something. "Uh, did you remember taking your potion? You know which day is today, don't you?"

"Shit, no. You are right Harry, get the others out quickly. Sirius, we will talk tomorrow." Lupin said horrified and urgently and got a nod.

Harry threw him a vial with a potion that looked remarkably like wolfsbane. Lupin caught it.

"I brewed it by the instructions I found on the potion. I had no chance to test it though. It looks like it is supposed to. Maybe it will work, but I wouldn't want to risk it." Harry said.

"Thank you, Harry. I hope it works, but I will still stay here. It's safer." Lupin said and downed the vial, shuddering. "It tastes like the one that Severus brewed."

Harry nodded and then levitated Pettigrew out while Sirius helped Ron. They were outside of the main room and Harry locked the door behind them with the strongest locking spell he knew.

"You knew it, Harry?" Hermione asked surprised.

"Yes, of course I did. I figured it out shortly after Snape substituted in DADA. I mean I already had a lot of clues, but that was like being hit with a sledge hammer. The git did it on purpose." Harry growled. "I decided that he couldn't be trusted to not try anything against Professor Lupin and so I decided to learn brewing that potion."

"What the bloody hell are you two talking about?" Ron demanded to know.

"Language Ronald." Hermione admonished him.

They just reached the entrance at the Whomping Willow and Harry immobilized the tree so that they could get out.

"Quick, we need to get Pettigrew to the castle and to Dumbledore." Hermione said.

"No, we are going to Professor Flitwick. We will call the head of the DMLE here to take our statements and let the headmaster come there as well." Harry said.

"Harry?" Hermione asked confused. "Why not Professor Dumbledore's office?"

"Because Harry doesn't want anything to be manipulated before all statements are documented. And I have to agree with him. While Dumbledore may not have sent me to Azkaban himself, he neglected justice being seen by not forcing a trial for me to be given. So I won't risk anything until I have Amelia Bones here. She is probably the only one with a good head on her shoulders in one of the leading positions of the Ministry." Sirius agreed with Harry. "How did you know?" He looked at Harry.

"Research. I wanted to know everything about you to be better prepared when I had to face you. At that point I was still believing that you were a traitorous bastard and after me. But the more I found out, the more it didn't make any sense. Wizards really lack common sense. I mean, really, a robe being spared by a blasting hex so powerful that it killed thirteen muggles and the wizard wearing the robes? That's impossible." Harry scoffed. "Add to that that I found Pettigrew on the Marauder's Map a few times and I had all the proof I needed to know that something was more than fishy."

"You are smart like your mother, Harry. And I am really glad that you are." Black said smiling.

They were surprised by a chill in the air.

"Shit, dementors." Black brought out.

Harry concentrated on the feeling of having a true family. Possibly with his godfather who he had discovered was innocent.

"Expecto Patronum." Harry cried out and a bright silver stag shot out, running at the dementors, driving all of them, all of the hundred that were trying to corner them, away.

Hermione's, Ron's and Black's eyes were wide and their jaws hang open seeing this show of power.

"You can do a corporeal patronus, Harry? That's immensely advanced magic." Hermione said awed. "I knew that you had asked Professor Lupin for help with it, but I didn't know you had fully mastered the spell."

"That was incredible, Pup." Black said, beaming with emotion. Was that pride? Harry wasn't sure.

"Pup?" He instead asked slightly winded.

"Well, that's what I called you when you were a baby. I guess it stuck." Black admitted sheepishly.

"I kind of like it." Harry mumbled.

Sirius grinned happily.

* * *

It was kind of ridiculous how the Minister tried to push everything under the rug. Only blazing fury from Harry who clearly told the man what he thought of his reluctance to accept that the Ministry had made a mistake in the past made the man cave in. After all, having the Boy-Who-Lived-And-Had-Enough-Public-Sway-To-Get-Hi m-Sacked against him wasn't smart. And Harry clearly showed that he was ready to use his name to get to that point if his innocent godfather wasn't publically cleared of all charges and given custody of him like his parents had wanted.

Dumbledore too got a feeling just how angry the boy was with his current home situation. Harry wouldn't budge on the issue of leaving the Dursleys for good. All the windows rattled, the air grew hot and things crashed from the shelves in the room when Harry nearly lost complete control over his emotions. It was only another sign just how powerful this boy was and what kind of potential he had. In the end he caved in like the Minister to not completely lose the trust of the boy. He needed to be able to lead the boy to not go down Tom Riddle's path.

Harry had long since realized that Dumbledore had his own agenda and messed around in his life far too often and kept far too many things from him. But the man trying to deny him the one thing he wanted more than anything else, the one thing he should have had all his life, a family that loved him and cared for him, he wouldn't take without resistance. His magic reacted accordingly. Harry knew that he was able to do exceptional magic if he fully put his mind onto it and his emotions only fuelled that. His patronus was the most impressive proof of that.

Fudge the idiot then tried to get back on Harry's good side, but the boy only asked one question: "Why weren't the dementors removed after they nearly killed me during the first Quidditch match of the school year?"

It shut the Minister up quickly. It was hard to give any satisfactory answer, especially when the truth of a major blunder done by the Ministry had come to light now. Not giving Black a trial would result in a major headache for him and he could be happy if in the end he was still Minister. He hadn't thought that the man could have been innocent. Nobody had, but then again, nobody had investigated properly and Crouch had sent Black to Azkaban within hours after his capture. It was really unfair that he would now take the brunt of the sure-to-come public outrage.

Ron and Hermione had only stared in a mixture of shock, awe, horror and pride at the display Harry gave. How had their friend managed to manoeuvre the Minister of Magic and Professor Dumbledore into such a position? His display of raw magic was astonishing too. But both knew that if there was one topic that could make Harry break it was his placement with the Dursleys and adults not taking his complaints about them serious. They both had talked about their suspicions about Harry being abused there when he hadn't been around, but to have it confirmed like that by Harry who was furious was somewhat terrifying.

* * *

Harry grinned reading the headlines in the Daily Prophet. Sirius was freed and given compensation for being illegally imprisoned for twelve years without a trial. Barty Crouch had taken the biggest hit. He had been forced to retire from his position at the Ministry as Fudge was desperately clinging to his position. He had somehow survived the massive hits against his handling of the situation, but one more public mess and he would be gone. Not that Harry cared. The man was stupid and incompetent. There were much better alternatives for the position.

Harry had also used the chaos last night to put a nifty little spell on Snape. He didn't doubt that the man would try to spill the beans on Lupin. Nothing had happened, but with the hatred Snape held for everything that was connected to the marauders, Harry didn't want to take a risk. He had found a spell in one of the books he had bought in Knockturn Alley last summer. It made a person unable to tell a certain secret. Kind of like a variety of the fidelius charm, just concerning a secret. Wizards were stupid after all and if nobody pointed out that Lupin was a werewolf nobody would find out, which meant his favourite DADA teacher would be able to return next year. And the spell thankfully included writing the secret down.

He was sure that Snape and Dumbledore had tried to break it, but it was impossible. This spell only broke if the caster died or if he lifted the spell himself. After all, it wasn't really dangerous to use the spell. How he loved his time-turner. He knew that he wouldn't be left without a watchdog, so he had gone back in time six hours to do some important things that nobody needed to know about. First thing had been rescuing Buckbeak and hiding him in a greenhouse that was up for renovation for one night. Then when everybody was busy with interrogating Sirius in Flitwick's office he had sneaked into Dumbledore's office under his invisibility cloak and looked for anything about his family, Dumbledore's plans and rare books. With how the old man had manipulated him there was no reason to refrain from doing so. He had found more than he had estimated. Such a great treat that all the portraits of the former headmasters had been out, probably listening into the discussion going on in Flitwick's office.

He used a spell to tell him which things didn't belong to Dumbledore and if there were some that belonged to himself. Books from the private Potter collection were the first things he took with him in a bottomless bag that he had got at Flourish and Blott's last summer. It could hold five times the normal contents. Next were some magical items that belonged to his family. While he knew that Dumbledore would know that they had gone missing, he wouldn't be able to say anything. These things belonged to Harry and should never have been taken from him. Next he destroyed the tracking instruments on the man's desk. He only needed to vanish every trace of his blood. After two hours, which he knew he had as Dumbledore was busy with Fudge, Sirius and Madam Bones till in three hours when he would return here to his office, there would be no way to set them up anew without a fresh sample of Harry's blood, which he wouldn't get.

That was another spell he had found. Blood was a powerful magical source and using somebody's blood in a dark magic ritual could have severe consequences for the one whose blood was used. Harry didn't want that at all. No, he was finally breaking Dumbledore's control. He had already shown part of his hand and if he wanted to be left alone he needed to make sure that when his remaining hand was revealed it was the strongest on the table. Dumbledore would suspect the time-tuner sooner or later, he was sure, but he wouldn't be able to prove it. Copying ministerial objects was supposed to be impossible, especially something as complex as a time-turner. But who said that just because people said it was impossible that it had to be true? No, there was magic that wasn't commonly known and Harry would do what he could to use that kind of magic to his advantage.

As an afterthought he took the rest of the private book collection as well. If he could find the rightful owners he would send the books back anonymously after making a copy for himself. But this would make it harder to tell just who had been behind the theft and let Harry have more time to prepare for the inevitable confrontation.

* * *

Dumbledore was angry. When he had returned from the interrogation, he hadn't been able to think about more than how to prevent that his control over Harry slipped further away. He hadn't expected that the boy would show such power. And the idiot Fudge would have done everything to not make the boy mad enough to publically speak out against him. That would have cost Fudge his job. Harry would move in with Sirius, a man notorious for not being controlled by anybody. The one thing his Black heritage was good for in Sirius' eyes. No, the only person Sirius had ever followed willingly had been James Potter, but he was dead and Sirius would do everything in his power to keep James' son happy and safe. And the Dursleys were clearly not the place where that could be achieved.

Now after a night of sleep he had coincidentally had a look at his silver instruments and had noticed how most of them had gone silent. No smoke coming from them, no spinning sounds, nothing. He quickly did some detection spells and found that all traces from the blood that he had taken from Harry as a baby were gone, irreplaceably gone. He had no possibility to track Harry down anymore, no chance to leech off his magic as he had done during his childhood to keep the accidental magic outbursts to a minimum. Otherwise the Dursleys would have been dead by the time Harry turned six with how they treated the boy.

How could this have happened? The only time he had been out of his office had been when the interrogation of Sirius had taken place. And nobody knew what the instruments were for. Not even Severus who had a better understanding of the dark arts than any other of the teachers here. He would need to investigate this closer. So his first action was asking the portraits of the former headmasters, but they hadn't seen anybody in here since he left for Professor Flitwick's office. Though they had been there and listened to the discussion and hadn't been here. He quickly looked over his other things if anything was missing and to his horror the whole collection of books he kept in his secret hiding place were gone. He had taken things he found valuable from many families that had died in the last war and from those orphans that couldn't know about their families' treasures.

If anybody asked where rare books and objects had gone, the most logical answer was the Death Eaters and Voldemort. It was perfect for him to learn family secrets and family magics. But now his precious collection was gone without any trace of the intruder. There was no magical signature he could track down, no hint of forceful entry. So only somebody knowing his password would be able to enter and that meant the teachers. No student knew the password except Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger as they had been here for a short time after the interrogation had been over to try and get Harry to agree going back to the Dursleys even if Sirius was cleared.

Perhaps the vanished blood had been caused by Harry's magical outburst. It wasn't uncommon for blood to reach out to its rightful owner, even after thirteen years Harry's blood would recognise his magic and with the high amount of magic lashing out it was completely possible that Harry's magic had seen the objects using his blood as dangerous for Harry and had vanished it. But who could have taken the books and objects? Nobody had been in here and disillusionment charms were always disabled by the wards on the door. He would have to think about this some more.

* * *

Harry sat in the compartment he, Hermione, Ron and Neville shared on the Hogwarts Express. Thanks to Harry always partnering with Neville while Ron and Hermione had their rows he had started a new friendship with the somewhat clumsy boy. Harry hadn't realised it before, but if you managed to give Neville some confidence, he wasn't that bad at magic. He was a pure prodigy at Herbology. And finding out that he used his father's old wand made Harrys tell Neville to go to Ollivander's, if necessary without his overbearing Gran knowing, and get his own wand to reach his full potential. He had told Neville what Ollivander had said when he had bought his wand. The wand chooses the wizard, not the other way round. Neville said he would do so, he had saved a lot of his pocket money and had more than enough to get one, not to mention his trust vault at Gringotts.

Thanks to Neville Harry knew a lot more about how the wizarding world worked. Neville's Gran was sitting as regent for the Longbottom seat until Neville came of age. To think what had happened to Neville's parents was horrible. He could somewhat understand why Neville didn't speak about it freely. To think your parents were still alive, but didn't recognise you. So Harry had started to encourage Neville in his classes and except for Potions there was a noticeable improvement in his grades. He now had solid passes in Charms, DADA and Transfiguration, the three wanded subjects. It was still nothing really impressive, but for Neville who had always had problems getting spells right it was fantastic. Harry wondered how much Neville would be able to improve with his own wand.

Hermione and Ron had come to a truce over the Scabbers affair after Sirius had explained how Crookshanks had tried to help him with getting Peter. Crookshanks was a really smart cat and had immediately noticed that Scabbers wasn't a real rat. In Harry's opinion that explained even why he had jumped at Ron at the Magical Menagerie. Well, Harry already knew what Ron would get for Christmas next year. He was after all pretty downtrodden about not having a pet anymore and the Weasleys couldn't really afford buying him a new one. Ron would get an owl for Christmas.

Their end of year results had come as a major surprise for Ron and Hermione, they hadn't realised how much better Harry had got the past year. Harry had come in second overall, just behind Hermione. That had never before happened. Harry knew that if he had concentrated on the theory more he would have been able to surpass Hermione, but he didn't care that much about being the best. What counted was that he could do all the spells he wanted and had a good understanding of how they worked. He didn't need to know every little detail and didn't need to learn the book by heart.

Though Hermione had realised that she couldn't go on like she had and had given the time-turner back. Ron had moaned about not having been told, but Hermione stated that she had promised to not tell anybody. Her reaction to Harry's reaction to the revelation was amusing.

* * *

_Flashback_

Hermione walked into the Gryffindor Common Room through the portrait hole and sat down in an armchair next to the ones Harry and Ron occupied. She seemed relieved.

"What happened, Hermione?" Ron asked curiously.

"I just told Professor McGonagall that I was quitting Muggle Studies for next year. I simply can't take the strain anymore." She said.

"Good for you. So you handed your device for repeating time in too?" Harry asked.

"How do you know that, Harry?" She asked shocked.

"Pretty simple. You didn't miss any of your classes except the one before which Malfoy upset you. So you had to have a way to be in two places at once. I found nothing about an ability to clone yourself so the only possibility was manipulating time. I don't know what exactly you used, but as a third-year you wouldn't be able to use a spell powerful enough to allow you that. So the only remaining way is some kind of device or potion. And face it; Snape would never waste time to brew a potion like that for students." Harry said.

"Since when are you so smart, Harry?" Ron asked impressed. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"I was always smart; I just didn't act like it most of the time. Bad habit I guess. And I didn't tell you because I realised that it must be very secret if Hermione always changed topics. Let me guess, you had to promise not to abuse whatever you got and to not tell anybody to avoid others becoming jealous." Harry said.

"You're right, Harry. I got it at the beginning of the year from Professor McGonagall and I had to promise exactly that. It's dangerous to mess with time. You can't be seen by anybody. It could have massive consequences. Wizards have killed their future or past selves by messing with time." She confirmed looking impressed that he had concluded all that on his own.

Both she and Ron got the underlying message that the Dursleys had ingrained into Harry that he couldn't show his intelligence.

_Flashback end_

* * *

The four spent the rest of the journey with playing cards, reading, mostly Hermione, and discussing plans for the summer. Harry was really looking forward to leaving the Dursleys for good. He would move in with Sirius. He had got a letter telling him that Sirius would be at the station to get him. He didn't know yet where they would live, but that was secondary. As long as he never had to see the Dursleys again he could deal with nearly everything. And he now had two months ahead of him where he could continue his preparations. He had lots of books to read, if necessary using his time-tuner. He would be ready when Voldemort returned and he would find a way to get back at Dumbledore for all the pain he had put Harry through. After all, there was nothing Harry couldn't do if he really put his mind to it.

* * *

**That's it. Hope you liked the story. **


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